Bob Witz Papers
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Abstract
Bob Witz is the editor of Appearances Magazine, a small arts magazine first published in the East Village during the 1980s. Witz is also an artist, writer and sculptor who lives in New York. The collection consists of material related to Appearances Magazine, correspondence, gallery catalogues and ephemera, sketchbooks, writings, chap books, drawings, and photographs.
Biographical Note
Bob Witz is a painter/sculptor, writer, poet, and editor of Appearances Magazine. Appearances is a small, low-budget magazine which was started in the East Village and has been published from the 1980s to the present. It is devoted mostly to the art scene with a focus on the alternative currents of this scene. Witz also published/produced small chapbooks, including an early book by Keith Haring, and Leaves of Grass II: a book/by Bob Witz (1972). Witz, along other writers represented in the Downtown collection (Ron Kolm and Tom Savage, 1948- ), is also closely associated with the Unbearables literary group.
Arrangement
The original donation and 2009 accretion have been arranged into three series: Appearances, Correspondence, and Miscellaneous.
Other accretions to the collections have been added as separate series. The materials in these accretions are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Contents
The Bob Witz Papers/Appearances Magazine Collection (MSS 080) consists of material related to Appearances Magazine, correspondence, gallery catalogues and ephemera, sketchbooks, writings, chap books, drawings, and photographs.
Material related to Appearances Magazine includes notebooks compiled by Witz over his years as publisher of the magazine. Included within the notebooks are poems, drawings, phone numbers, and other assorted items. Other material related to the magazine include some financial and business records, submissions of writing and artwork, production files, and Appearances Press publications.
The collection also contains other materials collected by Witz including writings of his own and others, and additional notebooks, some from before the beginning of the magazine, and sketchbooks.
The collection includes both professional and personal correspondence. Among the correspondence are numerous exhibition announcements from various galleries around New York City and elsewhere. In addition to gallery ephemera there are also some exhibition catalogs from various galleries.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open to researchers.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Bob Witz Papers/Appearances Magazine; MSS 080; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Bob Witz Papers were donated to the Fales Library by Mr. Witz in the Fall of 1996. The accession number associated with the original donation is 1996.080. Multiple accretions to the collection were donated between 1997 and circa 2010. The accession numbers associated with these accretions are: 2001.080, 2006.080, 2009.080, 2014.080, 2015.080, 2017.049, 2017.050, 2017.051, 2017.052, 2017.053.
Separated Material
Items written by Witz (Leaves of Grass II, Berserker, and the Unbearable Manual of Style) are available to view at the Fales Library.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The original donation and 2009 accretion to the collection were arranged into series in 1997 and 2012. In 2017 multiple accretions were added to the collection as individual series; materials were re-housed in acid free folders and boxes described but no other arrangement and description has been done.
